Season 6 Episode 1 – The Cursed Coin
by MonJoh
Summary: Arthur is still coming to terms with Merlin's revelation. Merlin and Gaius try to stop a curse from spreading through Camelot. (Note: this is a duplicate posting; see full season at Merlin Season 6)


Nearly a week had passed since their safe return from the battle in the White Mountains. Merlin had continued to act as the king's manservant but it was now clear to everyone that something was wrong between the two men. They rarely spoke to each other, other than to exchange the most perfunctory commands and responses. Gaius watched Merlin's despondency and it tore at his heart but he knew Arthur must come to his own conclusions in his own time. Gaius was encouraged that the king had yet to make any public accusation against Merlin for breaking the laws against magic.

Gwen knew she would find Merlin cleaning up in Arthur's chamber while the king was occupied elsewhere. She was aware that Merlin tried to accomplish his duties without being in the same room as Arthur more than necessary.

"Merlin." He almost jumped as he turned around. Gwen was sad to see him so nervous, like he was walking on eggshells.

Merlin wondered what, if anything, Arthur had told the queen. He had no idea what Gwen's attitude to magic or sorcery was beyond knowing she would not break the laws of her land. He waited anxiously, but Gwen smiled. "I know how well you have taken care of Arthur. And I'm pleased. Thank you." Merlin felt himself smile for the first time in days.

* * *

><p>The horse outside the hut was much too fine an animal to belong to such a poor farm, and the clothing of the richly dressed visitor made it clear he was not a relative. "I simply want what is owed to me," Gaheris was saying to the peasant farmer. "I made you a loan in good faith and now I want my due."<p>

"The harvest won't be sold for another month yet. I can make the interest payment then." The peasant knew that his benefactor was well aware of that. The fact that he was here to collect when there was no possibility of obtaining payment meant he wanted something else instead.

"Debtor's prison is an unhappy place," said Gaheris calmly. The peasant paled. If he were to be thrown in debtor's prison he would never get out again. There was no way to earn the money to pay back a loan while sitting in a prison cell. His family would be destitute.

"I have made the interest payment each harvest and I will pay the loan in full as soon as I can."

His visitor smiled. "But the loan is past due now. If you forfeit me your land we will consider the matter settled in full." And his family would have nowhere to live, and no way to make a living. They would end up begging in the streets of the city. There was only one way to end this, and he resolved to take it.

"I will repay you in full now." As the peasant entered his hut to get the small cloth bag he met his wife's pleading gaze. He knew she opposed this, that she would even walk away from their home rather than go through with what he intended to do now. But it was his responsibility to take care of them all.

He tossed the bag unopened to Gaheris. The rich man was more than a little skeptical. There was no way a peasant farmer had enough money to repay loan and interest in full before the harvest was even in, let alone sold. He opened the bag and dumped its contents into his palm. A gold coin! How would a peasant obtain gold? Copper usually, a little silver sometimes, but gold?

"You have been repaid in full. The debt is settled."

* * *

><p>Merlin had always assisted Gaius with his physician duties as and when he could, but now he found himself more and more at loose ends as Arthur made it clear his company was not wanted.<p>

"Back so soon? Again?" Gaius tried to think of another errand that would get the boy out of his hair for several hours but he had sent him out every day this past week and the physician was out of reasons to have any more herbs picked or items bought at the market.

"You're the only one who appreciates my help," Merlin stated. "I should be your assistant full time, Arthur doesn't want me around anyway."

Gaius sighed. He was busily preparing remedies for three of his regular patients as well as one of the courtier's children who was sick with fever. It would be helpful to have some assistance but so far this week Merlin's "help" has resulted in a laxative being mistakenly added to one courtier's headache remedy, old Lord Rolf's hip poultice being delivered to Lady Elsa for her skin condition which turned her face an alarming shade of red and caused her to take to her chambers, and having to re-make a stomach medication three times because Merlin was not paying attention to what he was doing.

"Arthur's loss is my gain," said Gaius resignedly. "Could you turn up the heat slightly on that tincture," he asked. Merlin turned his attention to the potion on the workbench burner. With a glance he heated it to boiling. The blue liquid that had been simmering turned to white foam and exploded from the top of the pot.

"I'm sorry, Gaius!" Merlin rushed to clean up the mess.

"I have been preparing that since early this morning." The physician watched as his assistant mopped up hours of work that would now have to be repeated. "Are you intending to mope around here all day? Don't you have studying to do in your room?"

"I've read everything." Gaius did not believe a word of that, his library was almost inexhaustible. "Everything worth reading," Merlin amended. Gaius shook his head.

"Here, carry my bag. I have to make some calls in the city."

As they passed through the narrow, crowded streets Gaius felt a desperate tug on his arm where someone grabbed hold.

"Please!" the woman begged, "You're a physician! Please, I need your help." She was sobbing and Gaius allowed her to lead him to the smithy, still tugging on his arm. "My husband." One look at the patient lying on his thin cot and it was obvious to Gaius there was nothing he could do for the silversmith. He closed the eyes and then looked closer at the body.

"No," the woman mourned. If she had no family to take her in Gaius knew her lot would not be good. A widow was dependent on the charity of the church and that could be unreliable at best.

Gaius picked up the dead man's hand and almost dropped it in alarm. What appeared to be faintly luminous green lines traced from his right hand up his arm and across his chest. Merlin had not missed the symptom, either – they both recognized that this illness had black magic as its cause. Gaius looked worriedly at his ward. Merlin would now be the first suspect in the king's mind at word of any foul play involving magic. It would be wise to say no more to anyone about this isolated incident.

It was three days later that Gaius was called to attend a storekeeper who had fallen ill. The look of terror on the face of the child who had been sent to summon him prompted the physician to ask Merlin to accompany them. The shopkeeper was still alive but Gaius could see glowing green lines tracing from his hand up his arm. It had not yet spread to his chest.

"Please, give me a few moments of privacy to examine this man." Reluctantly, the shopkeeper's wife and child left the room. As soon as they were alone with the unconscious patient, Gaius turned to Merlin. "There is nothing I can do to treat this." Merlin wondered if Gaius was asking what he thought he was asking. It was not like Gaius to want him to use magic, even now. But there was only one way that the man's life could be saved. "See what you can do."

Healing spells were not Merlin's strong suit, but Gaius produced from his bag some ingredients that had no place in a physician's satchel. Merlin enchanted a poultice and put it under the sick man's pillow. Then he took the man's right hand and began an incantation. The glowing lines under his skin seemed to flicker. The colour of the strange luminescent traces changed to yellow and then faded. He smiled in triumph.

Outside the shopkeeper's dwelling Merlin assumed they would inform the king of the strange sickness making its way through the city, but instead of heading to the Council chambers or the throne room Gaius continued their rounds as though they had not been interrupted. Merlin was puzzled. It was obvious that the symptoms were not any ordinary illness. He wondered why Gaius hesitated to inform the king. When they returned to their quarters Merlin voiced his concern.

"Shouldn't we inform Arthur? We have to stop this curse before anyone else dies."

Gaius said levelly, "Because if we tell the king that someone is using magic to cause people in Camelot to fall sick he will be forced to start arresting sorcerers."

It took a moment to sink in.

"But I have nothing to do with this," Merlin protested.

"That may not matter. Once the seed of suspicion is planted it is hard to uproot." Merlin wanted to dispute that Arthur would ever suspect him of such a thing but in truth he had completely lost the king's trust. Arthur likely would arrest him when word of this reached court.

"We must find out if there have been any other victims," Gaius continued. "Especially if there were any fatalities before we returned from the White Mountains. I saw no such sickness prior to our leaving, if it appeared while we were gone at least there is no reason for suspicion to fall on you." Gaius looked at his ward. "No good reason, anyway," he amended.

A visit to the local priest left Gaius even more worried. A man had been buried just a few days previous and the priest's description of the strange state of the body was disturbingly familiar. In the workroom of their chambers, Merlin and Gaius quietly discussed the facts as they knew them. The first man to die, a merchant by the name of Gaheris, had taken ill the day Gaius, Merlin, and their party returned to Camelot. All three in the city to fall victim to the curse had died within the last week, a few days apart in each case. Each victim's symptoms spread outward from the hand. Why did only one person fall ill at any one time? And it was odd that the disease did not pass to any members of a victim's household.

Gaius had his suspicions on how, if not why, this was happening. "There is an object that is known to carry black magic longer and more powerfully than even its maker sometimes intends." Merlin waited for him to continue. "Money. The priest said something about the burial being paid for with a valuable piece of jewellery. The smith who died in the city could have made it and sold it to the merchant."

"So we need to find out if the smith purchased anything from the shopkeeper, how it was paid for, and where those coins are now," Merlin concluded.

Gaius made a pretense of checking on the shopkeeper when they called but there was no doubt in his mind the man would fully recover without assistance from a physician.

"Tell me, did the silversmith make any purchases here recently?" It seemed an odd question. The shopkeeper's wife exchanged a look with her husband. But there was no excuse not to answer someone who held a position in the royal household.

"Yes, he bought supplies just a few days ago. Actually, he settled his account as well as stocking up. Must have had a rich customer recently because he paid with gold."

"Where is the money now?" The physician seemed unduly alarmed.

The shopkeeper and his wife exchanged another glance. This was definitely an odd question. The man spoke up. "We used the gold to pay our taxes."

There was no doubt now that Gaius would have to inform his king before the cursed coin ended up in the royal coffers. Arthur could not help a suspicious glance at Merlin when his physician told him that magic was spreading a disease through the city, killing one person every few days. But it did not seem possible that Merlin would be involved. Besides, Gaius would not even tell him about the situation if it would put Merlin in any danger. It was a sobering thought that one of his most trusted and knowledgeable advisors, one who had been at court even before he was born, was more loyal to his adoptive son that to his king. Gaius was clearly guilty of harbouring a sorcerer, a crime punishable by public execution under the law of the land. That did not bear thinking about.

"Have the clerk bring me the tax rolls," Arthur commanded a guard. While they waited in the Council chamber, Gaius related details of who had fallen victim to the curse, how, and when. Arthur listened in silence. He did not look at Merlin, and Merlin did not speak. When the bewildered clerk had been brought to the king, Arthur examined the tax rolls. Payment from the shopkeeper had been duly recorded as one gold coin submitted the previous day. "Have there been any expenditures of gold since then?"

The clerk examined his record books. "We paid out 10 silver for livestock, 4 silver for cloth, 12 coppers for …" The king interrupted the recitation by clearing his throat. His clerk looked at the king's impatient face and hurriedly perused the rest of the daily accounts.

"No, Sire, no gold has been paid out since." Barring any theft then that meant the coin had to be locked in the counting room. The nervous clerk showed them to the treasury. Was he being accused of some wrongdoing?

"The taxes collected yesterday, which are they?" the king demanded.

"What has been counted is stored there," the clerk pointed to several bags of coins lined up on a shelf.

Merlin looked in despair at the bulging bags. "Are those all gold?"

"Oh, no," the clerk replied. "The gold is in the chests." Merlin's heart sank. Four large chests lined the wall below the shelves.

"Well, I'll leave you to sort through those." Gaius patted Merlin on the back and prepared to leave. "I need to examine the tax collector and the clerk before they take sick."

Merlin gave his guardian a horrified look. "How am I supposed to find a curse in all of those coins?"

"You should be able to identify it by touch. Shouldn't take you more than a few hours. You might even be done before sunrise." Gaius smiled and held out a hand for the bag his apprentice carried. Merlin gave the physician a satchel that held poultices they had prepared and enchanted to cure anyone who came in contact with the curse. Gaius led the bewildered clerk out.

Merlin muttered under his breath and opened the first chest. "Do this, Merlin, do that, Merlin." He passed his hand across the pile of coins but nothing appeared amiss. The same with the next chest, and the next, and the next. Okay, he needed to look closer apparently. One by one he examined each coin from the top layer of the first chest. Nothing. Same with the second chest and the third. As he put his hand into the fourth chest a jolt went through him. He picked up a coin but nothing more happened. When he held up another coin it seemed as though a faint haze danced in the air around it. It made him feel sick to his stomach, as though he had touched something dead or unclean. It felt evil. Closing his eyes, Merlin tested the enchantment, feeling its strength and depth. When he thought he had hold of the source, he began to cast the spells that would drive out the black magic. It was as powerful as any he remembered encountering. He concentrated harder. When the curse broke he had an impression of thick black ooze running out and sinking through the floor, dispersing into the earth. He looked at the coin in his hand. It felt like an ordinary coin now. Merlin sighed with relief and stood to find that Arthur had not left the counting room. He had been watching all this time.

So Arthur had seen him use his magic to stop a curse from spreading through Camelot. Would he thank him? The king looked directly at him, then solemnly left without saying a word. Merlin shook his head in irritation. "Arrogant, overbearing, ungrateful …"

* * *

><p>Gaheris' clerk had directed Sir Leon to this peasant landholding. It was apparent they were still in possession of the land so there must have been a loan payment made the day Gaheris had visited.<p>

At the sight of a Camelot knight with a retinue of guardsmen arriving at their humble hut both the man working in the field and his son dropped their tools and returned to the yard as quickly as possible. He saw his wife come out of the front door and stop in shock, staring at the visitors. A little girl tried to see around her mother standing in the doorway but she shouted at the child to get back inside.

"Go and take care of your sister," the farmer said to his son. The boy looked from one parent to the other and then went into the hut. The farmer's wife stood in front of the hut's door as though she were protecting the children inside from whatever was about to happen in her yard.

Leon addressed the man. "I understand Gaheris the merchant was here last week to collect a loan payment. Did you pay him with a gold coin?" The farmer said nothing but his wife could not suppress a cry and sagged back against the doorway, her hand on her heart.

"That curse has been responsible for two deaths in the city," Leon said steadily.

"Two?" The man paled.

"Two deaths, and three others fell ill. Without such a capable physician they would have died as well."

"I never intended …," the man stammered. He looked for something to lean on the way the doorpost was supporting his wife. "I only wanted to protect my wife and our home."

"The silversmith's widow is now without a husband or a home," Leon continued resolutely. "Her husband's brother took over the smithy and turned her out on the street."

"It was not supposed to harm anyone else," the farmer's voice trailed off as he looked at his hut.

"Do you admit that you obtained an item of magic and used it to cause the death of Gaheris?" Leon asserted.

The man bowed his head. "Yes," he said softly.

"You are under arrest for murder and the use of enchantments."

"It was unfair of that merchant to threaten debtor's prison," Gwen sympathized as she and Arthur discussed Sir Leon's report at supper that night.

"That does not excuse the choice to unleash a deadly curse, even if he only intended for one person to die."

"I know." Gwen looked directly at her husband as she continued, "If Merlin had not saved the lives of the people who came in contact with the coin, and then removed the curse itself so it could do no more harm, it would have been much worse."

"Yes." Arthur was willing to admit that much. "But magic was used to create this evil in the first place. It has caused yet another horror and more death."


End file.
